The quick bond process described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,043 was developed to make possible the manufacture in air of an aluminum matrix composite reinforced by a plurality of parallel layers of unidirectional filaments. This "air bonding" process comprises positioning a plurality of filament reinforced aluminum matrix monolayer tapes in a stack and then pressing the stack between heated platens or dies at high pressure in air to densify the matrix, the platen temperature causing bonding of the matrix to the filaments and bonding the matrices of adjacent tapes in the stack to each other. In this patent, the monolayer tapes were made by bonding the layer of filaments to an aluminum backing foil by a plasma sprayed metal coating, such as aluminum, on the surface of the filaments opposite to the foil. This coating entirely covered the filaments and protected them from oxidation during assembly in the stack. It was hoped that other less expensive forms of tapes could be developed that would produce equally acceptable matrix composites.